Coconutdaddy Productions

Before environmentalism became a common theme in mainstream entertainment, there was Silent Running . Released in 1972, just a few years after 2001: A Space Odyssey changed the way audiences looked at science fiction, Silent Running took the genre in a very different direction. Instead of exploring mankind's place in the universe through cosmic mystery and technological wonder, it asked a much more immediate question: What happens when humanity destroys the natural world? Starring Bruce Dern in one of the finest performances of his career, Silent Running is not an adventure movie. It is not a crowd-pleasing spectacle. It is not even particularly interested in making audiences comfortable. It is a thoughtful, melancholy science fiction film carrying a message that its creators believed people needed to hear. Bruce Dern plays Freeman Lowell, a botanist aboard a space freighter carrying Earth's last surviving forests in huge greenhouse domes. In the film's future, the natur...